Access to information and communications technology (ICT) is
considered important for individuals to fully achieve educational
and economic development goals. In fact, ICT access has become
so important that the lack of it has been termed the digital divide.
To combat the digital divide, community-based computing centers
were created as a vital first step to provide physical access to ICT.
Commonly known as Community Technology Centers (CTCs) or
Telecentres, these publicly accessible labs are providing a
valuable means for the diffusion of technology in underserved
communities. The meaningful digital divide, however, is whether
individuals can fully participate in society. Access to tools like
computers and the Internet are only the first step toward effective
social inclusion. Furthermore, if the tools become the focus, and
we look exclusively at diffusion of technology to address the
digital divide, then we make compromises in implementation that
never address other, equally important, issues.
If public computing facilities such as CTCs are to make the
transition from facilities fostering diffusion of technology to
community centers empowering citizens through effective use of
ICT as citizen professionals such as citizen scientists, citizen
planners, and citizen journalists, it is necessary to revisit
implementations of technology within these spaces; this may
mean creating a new framework for how computers and other
ICTs are set up for use in CTCs and Telecentres. Techniques used
by African-American marketing agencies as well as successful
non-profit organizations that implement grassroots campaigns can
teach us a lot about designing compelling experiences that attract
audiences.